Audio Burst Collision Resolution

• US 20150341498A1
• Filed: 12/16/2013
• Published: 11/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation (Dolby Laboratories Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation (Dolby Laboratories Incorporated)
• Inventors: DICKINS, Glenn N., COSTA, Brendon, ZEALEY, James, BRUN, Jeremy Pascal
• Granted Patent: US 9,866,681 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/78 Detection of presence or absence of voice signals switching of direction of transmission by voice frequency in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2227 Quality of service monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42187 Lines and connections with preferential service
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/568 audio processing specific to telephonic conferencing, e.g. spatial distribution, mixing of participants echo suppression in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/02; sound field processing per se H04S7/30

Abstract

In an conferencing system in which a plurality of communication devices electronically connect respective participants to one another, a method for mitigating the effects of substantially concurrent audio bursts from two or more of the participants includes identifying a priority attribute associated with each of multiple substantially concurrent audio bursts, comparing the identified priority attributes, and electronically suppressing at least one audio burst as a function of the comparison.

Claims

1-24. -24. (canceled)

25. A method for mitigating the effects of substantially concurrent audio bursts from two or more of the participants, for use in an conferencing system in which a plurality of communication devices electronically connect respective participants to one another, the method comprising:

identifying a priority attribute associated with each of multiple substantially concurrent audio bursts;

comparing the identified priority attributes; and

electronically suppressing at least one audio burst as a function of the comparison, wherein said suppressing comprises performing one or more of attenuating, altering pitch, sound replacement, selective frequency manipulation, and selective spatial positioning.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the priority attribute relates to time of receipt of the audio burst at an audio conferencing server.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the priority attribute relates to time of receipt of the audio burst at a communication device.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the priority attribute relates to time of utterance of the audio burst.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein the priority attribute relates to speaker identity.

30. The method of claim 25, further comprising determining a latency associated with each audio burst, said comparing including accounting for determined latencies.

31. The method of claim 25, wherein the number of participants is two or more, and wherein said suppressing comprises suppressing the audio burst with respect to less than the total number of participants.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein determining a latency associated with each audio burst comprises obtaining an estimate of path latency based on one or more of previous measurement, knowledge of path length, path components, number of path links or hops, and congestion or expected congestion.

33. The method of claim 25, wherein said suppressing is conducted in accordance with one or more rules selected from first-to-speak, turn-taking/fairness, preferential treatment to one or more parties, disfavorable treatment for one or more parties, and interruption tally.

45. The method of claim 25, wherein suppressing the at least one audio burst comprises enhancing at least one different audio burst.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein enhancing at least one different audio burst comprises increasing gain and/or spatial shifting.

34. A conferencing system operable to mitigate the effects of two or more substantially concurrent audio bursts, comprising:

a concurrency detector operable to determine substantial concurrency of two or more audio bursts;

an attribute extractor operable to extract priority attributes from substantially concurrent audio bursts;

a comparator operable to compare extracted priority attributes; and

a suppressor operable to suppress at least one audio burst as a function of the comparison, wherein the suppressor is operable to perform on said at least one audio burst one or more of attenuating, altering pitch, sound replacement, selective frequency manipulation, and selective spatial positioning.

35. The conferencing system of claim 34, wherein the priority attributes relate to time of receipt of the audio burst at an audio conferencing server.

36. The conferencing system of claim 34, wherein the priority attributes relate to time of receipt of the audio burst at a communication device.

37. The conferencing system of claim 34, wherein the priority attributes relate to time of utterance of the audio burst.

38. The conferencing system of claim 34, wherein the priority attributes relate to speaker identity.

39. The conferencing system of claim 34, wherein the comparator is operable to account for audio burst latency.

40. The conferencing system of claim 34, wherein two or more conference participants are electronically coupled to one another through the conferencing system, and wherein the suppressor is operable to suppress the audio burst with respect to less than the total number of participants.

41. The conferencing system of claim 39, wherein the latency comprises an estimate based on one or more of previous measurement, knowledge of path length, path components, number of path links or hops, and congestion or expected congestion.

42. The conferencing system of claim 34, further comprising a rule selector operable to select one or more rules selected from first-to-speak, turn-taking/fairness, preferential treatment to one or more parties, disfavorable treatment for one or more parties, and interruption tally, wherein the suppressor is operable to suppress said at least one audio burst in accordance with said selected one or more rules.

43. The conferencing system of claim 34, wherein the suppressor is operable to enhance at least one different audio burst.

44. The conferencing system of claim 43, wherein the suppressor is operable to enhance said at least one different audio burst by increasing gain and/or by spatial shifting.